Tuesday Techniques: Febreze Luminary Shades

I have been wanting to share this idea forever and have finally gotten a chance to sit down and photograph it. I love the Febreze Flameless Luminary! I really love the glow a candle gives off but I honestly have a hard time feeling comfortable with candles burning in the house. Part of it is due to the fragrance (I am super sensitive) and part of it is the whole flame thing (we had a house fire once). That is where the Febreze Luminary is a great item for me, it gives a great warm candle glow with no scent and no flame. To activate the light, you have to insert a paper shade into the base.

The light came with a heavy cardstock weight shade in the base that I used for a template. You could easily measure it out, but it was super easy just to flatten the included piece and use it as a template. The shade is one long section of paper with a small tab section of one end. It is slightly too long to cut in one strip from a 12×12 piece of cardstock so I traced two sections, each with a tab. I reccomend a nice heavy weight cardstock so that it will stay nice and straight and not sag in time. In my example above, I used Curious Iridescent 8.5×11 89lb Cardstock from Cut Card Stock. It has a stunning pearly iridescent finish with a subtle mauve-ish pink touch.

After cutting out the two strips, score all of the fold lines. I uses the cutting guard on my trimmer for a nice straight line to score against but you could also use a ruler.

Fold along all of the score lines and press your lines with a bone folder.

Apply adhesive to the two tab sections. I prefer Therm O Web’s Super Tape for this because the bond is instant and will stand up over time.

Adhere one tab section to the non-tabbed end of the other strip. You will now have one long strip with a tab on one end. For now, leave the backing on the tape on the remaining tab.

You could use a border punch to add a decorative edge to the top of your shade.

To cut a window out of the shade, use a pencil and ruler to draw some cutting guidelines on the back side of the shade. Cut along the pencil lines with a ruler and craft knife. You can add as many windows as you would like. I am showing just one for simplicity. Keep in mind if you put a window in each section that it will make the shade flimsier. Using a really heavy cardstock will help counteract that.

Line the window opening with adhesive. Again, I prefer the tape for this since it is an instant bond.

Cover the window with a piece of vellum cut to fit.

Remove the remaining tape backing and adhere the tab to the end of the strip.

When assembled, you will have a square shade with frosty windows.

Placed on the base, the soft flickering glow will show through the vellum. For the purposes of simplicity, I left my vellum piece plain. Imagine all the fun you could dress it up though, for instance with stamping and markers, with rub-ons, and with bling embellishments.

A few days ago I shared my tips for using rub-ons with alcohol inks. Tonight when I was fiddling with one of the pieces, I discovered I could peel away the metal base from one of my dried pieces that had been coated with Glossy Accents. When I peeled the metal away, I was left with a clear acrylic piece with the ink design being clear but kind of opaque. I decided to make another shade and cut a window opening to fit the alcohol ink piece.

I cut a piece of Therm O Web’s Mounting adhesive to fit the inside of the shade, slightly larger than then window. I applied the adhesive piece to the inside of the shade and removed the backing. On the outside of the shade, I applied the clear piece to the exposed adhesive in the window. Although the Mounting Adhesive leaves a tacky surface exposed on the inside, it works great for this purpose since it is completely clear and won’t affect the light shining through.

When placed on the base it gives a really soft amber glow that reminds me of Craftsman and Mission Style Mica Shades.

For the second shade I used a metalic cardstock from Cut Card Stock. This one is 105lb cardstock and is really nice and stiff while still being very workable. This color is called Mars and has a really lovely shimmer to it. If you make one of these I hope you will email me a photo, I would love to see what you create!

What a cool idea! I love the custom window, neat to see how the two techniques can be used together. I’m going to have to see if I can find one of those Febreze flameless candles now. My mom has a new puppy at her house and the air could use a bit of freshening LOL!